Recently, Miller beer tapped an all star line up of hip hop personalities to promote its Miller Genuine Draft brand. Rappers like Common, Q-Tip, Cypress Hill, Talib Kweli, and Big Boi of Outkast kicked off the 1st ever "Flavor 2 Savor" concert series as an "acknowledgment of the influence, and pivotal role that urban music has played in shaping popular culture."

Culture critic and self professed brand bouncer Bucky Turco wonders why these black community icons would knowingly work with Miller, part of SABMiller which was recently criticized for its treatment of black workers. Turco said in an email to Adrants, "MC's like Common, Talib Kweli, Q-Tip, and Cypress Hill constitute a strong part of the black intelligentsia and they tend to be brand conscious. It is surprising that the leaders of black thought in hip hop would be so supportive of Miller since it is owned by SABMiller, (the SAB standing for South African Breweries), the world's 2nd largest brewer, and the 3rd largest company in South Africa behind DeBeers and Anglo American Corp. SAB has often been criticized for exploiting its black workers and, for their intense marketing efforts to the poor black working class, especially miners. Something tells me no one told these guys what the SAB stands for."

The content and lineup of global advertising, media and marketing leaders have been confirmed for the initial round of keynote presentations and panels to be held during Advertising Week 2005, running September 26-30, 2005 in New York. Comedian Jon Stewart and PBS's Charlie Rose join Maurice Levy, Andrew Robertson, Marc Lefar, Lee Clow, Alex Bogusky, David Lubars and others as confirmed speakers. Additional speakers and program content will be announced shortly.

Adopting the next new buzz word, Coke has embarked on an "experiential" marketing concept that will, as Ad Age writes, "interpret what the marketer calls the brand's 'optimism' through a series of short films and breakthrough bottle designs." The project, called M5, involves five design shops which will create "iconic" designs that will affect packaging and other branding elements all designed to increase appeal to younger generations. The new designs will debut beginning in September. The first is called "Love Being" and was designed by Designers Republic in London.

While the endeavor to make the brand relevant again is worthy and commendable, the endless marketing blather used to describe the effort is quite comical and well worth wallowing in for a while.

Yes But No But Yes found their way to Times Square today for National Underwear Day sponsored by underwear seller FreshPair. There;s really no other news to tell other than it's yet another attention getting Times Square stunt and an excuse to look at hot human beings. And not just women. More pictures here.

Sony Ericsson has launched a moblog called Memorable Movie Moments where people can submit camera phone images of re-created memorable movie moments. The person submitting the winning image will receive an all expenses paid trip to London and a Sony Ericsson K750i phone. Two runners up will also receive the phone.

Radar magazine's Maer Roshan has brought legendary adman and cover designer George Lois out of retirement to design the issue's September/October issue, on sale August 16th. The cover will be a riff on the 1968 Esquire cover Louis did with Muhammed Ali.

When Lois saw Radar writer Kim Masters' investigative piece on Tom Cruise and his relationship with Scientology, he was reminded of the April 1968 Esquire cover which showed Ali as Saint Sebastian. Louis convinced Ali to pose as a martyr, wounded and near death but still holding on. Back then, Esquire's editor Harold Hayes was deluged with angry letters and the cover was denounced on the Senate floor. But now, with everything a parody of its former self, a new parody will grace the cover of Radar with Tom Cruise appearing as Ali did on the April 1968 cover.

Dolby, those folks who bring all that quality sound to music, television and movies, has launched an online advertising effort designed to illustrate sound as in integral part of the entertainment experience. The first execution features a landscape with ominous storm clouds looming on the horizon. Users can create lightning and thunder by clicking on the storm clouds. Distant clouds create low pitched rumbling thunder while those nearby create a dramatic high pitched crackle.

The second execution begins with a scene in the jungle. Users hear birds chirping and the low growl of an unseen tiger. A sliding selector transforms the jungle trees into kelp and the user is transported to a tranquil underwater scene. Individuals who mouse over the jungle scene will release flying flocks of birds, while those that play with the underwater portion will scare schools of fish away from their pointer.

While our tiny laptop speakers are no match for a big ass home theater system, the execution does a nice job moving sound around and demonstrating how sound can add to the experience. No doubt, their in-theater demos are far better.

To relate specific in-flight problems such as discomfort, boredom, ill-fitting seatbelts and inability to sleep yielding phobias such as "Blankophobia," "Brunchaphobia," "Chitchatphobia" and "Clamberphobia," with Virgin Atlantic in-flight features such as a stand up bar, seats that turn into beds an in-flight massages, Australian interactive agency NetX created a microsite which clearly and humorously explains Virgin Atlantic benefits. It's one of the better online efforts adding a bit of fun into the experience yet without forgetting to concisely convey product benefit.

Thirteen year advertising industry veteran Hadji Williams has published a book, Knock the Hustle: How to Save Your Job And Your Life From Corporate America, which takes a look inside corporate America, focusing on the ad industry, and calls the whole thing a scam with calling diversity a joke and, by design, keeping the ad industry as lily-white as ever; claiming Madison Avenue a place with no morals; calling he agency/client relationship a pimp and ho relationship; citing focus groups and time sheets useless because of continuous cover your ass antics; ridiculing corporate hierarchies with too many bosses and not enough leaders and naming marketers as pied pipers who need to look in the mirror before criticizing pop culture.

While we haven't read the book, our own experience in the industry, while perhaps not as negative as Williams' seems to have been, certainly leads us to believe Williams may not be too far off the mark.

When you roll it all up into one article as Ad Age just did, the recent efforts by car manufacturers to glom on to BMW "The Heist"-like mini-movie ads, is all lands with a big "me too," "wannabe," been there, done that" thud. However, some, such as Mercury's "Meet the Lucky Ones" did quite well, at least in terms of generating dramatically increased exploration of web pages describing various Mercury models.

Not to rain on everyone's parade but all this seems like a lot of work when the simplicity of - 1. Here's my product. 2. It is good because... 3. Try it and we'll give you this incentive. - always seemed to work quite well.